(RoyalPatriot.com )- Miami Beach officials, who are facing an invasion of iguanas that are causing “significant damage” to the city, including undermining seawalls and building foundations, are considering offering a bounty to anyone who captures and kills the reptilian invaders.
Or, Miami Beach officials could just fly them to Martha’s Vineyard.
According to a report at Fox News, Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Gonzalez suggested in a city commissioners’ meeting last week that the city place a bounty on the iguanas, paying people to bring them in “dead or alive.” She said if the city pays a bounty for each iguana captured or killed, Miami Beach residents will “go out and hunt them for money.”
Gonzalez believes this method would be far more effective and far less expensive than hiring a contractor to trap the iguanas since the contractor could only operate on public properties.
Unfortunately, iguanas are an invasive species with no natural predators in Florida. As a result, the Sunshine State has been experiencing an iguana population explosion which is especially bad along the southern tip of Florida’s Atlantic coast from Broward to Palm Beach County.
And those pesky reptiles cause significant damage to the Florida coastline, not to mention residential and commercial vegetation. They also pose a threat to native and endangered species in the state, including the Florida tree snail, Miami blue butterflies, and the burrowing owl.
Iguanas are also known to transmit Salmonella to humans through contact with water and surfaces contaminated by their feces.
